Telkom agrees to trim broadband access costs
Fixed-line operator Telkom has reached an agreement with the Competition Commission to substantially reduce wholesale broadband access costs, the commission said yesterday, according to BusinessLIVE.
The agreement comes after a two-year investigation by the Competition Commission, which found that Telkom subsidiary Openserve was overcharging Internet service providers (ISPs) for moving data from a local area to one of the major data centres in the country.
In December 2019, the commission instructed Openserve to reduce pricing for IP Connect within two months.
IP Connect allows ISPs to connect to Openserve’s broadband network to enable it to provide high-speed Internet to customers. Openserve houses all Telkom’s fixed-line network infrastructure and sells capacity to other companies at wholesale prices.
The commission said Openserve would introduce a new wholesale product suite to replace IP Connect.
The structure and the proposed initial pricing of this new offering from Openserve would reduce wholesale charges to ISPs for fibre broadband wholesale customers and ‘in this way remove the pricing concerns raised in respect of IP Connect’.
Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele said the commission ‘welcomes the effective price reductions … as this should result in lower prices to consumers and even small businesses which are increasingly reliant on fibre networks to run their businesses’.
Bonakele also welcomed the commitment of Telkom to zero-rating essential educational and government services websites, as well as increased transparency in pricing.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
